(2007-06-15) Schneier Terrorism Idiocy

Bruce Schneier said the coverage of the JFK-airport-bombing-plot was is a study in alarmism and incompetence: on the part of the terrorists, our government and the press... Terrorism is a real threat, and one that needs to be addressed by appropriate means. But allowing ourselves to be terrorized by wannabe terrorists and unrealistic plots - and worse, allowing our essential freedoms to be lost by using them as an excuse - is wrong.

• The alleged plan, to blow up JFK's fuel tanks and a small segment of the 40-mile petroleum pipeline that supplies the airport, was ridiculous.

• This isn't the first time a bunch of incompetent terrorists with an infeasible plot have been painted by the media as poised to do all sorts of damage to America.

• In May we learned about a six-man plan to stage an attack on Fort Dix by getting in disguised as pizza deliverymen and shooting as many soldiers and Humvees as they could, then retreating without losses to fight again another day.

• The "Miami 7," caught last year for plotting - among other things - to blow up the Sears Tower, were another incompetent group: no weapons, no bombs, no expertise, no money and no operational skill.

• And don't forget Iyman Faris, the Ohio trucker who was convicted in 2003 for the laughable plot to take out the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch. At least he eventually decided that the plan was unlikely to succeed.

• Following one of these abortive terror misadventures, the administration invariably jumps on the news to trumpet whatever ineffective "SecurIty" measure they're trying to push, whether it be national ID cards, wholesale National Security Agency eavesdropping or massive data mining. Never mind that in all these cases, what caught the bad guys was old-fashioned Police work - the kind of thing you'd see in decades-old spy movies.

• The administration repeatedly credited the apprehension of Faris to the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping programs, even though it's just not true. The 9/11 (World Trade Center) terrorists were no different; they succeeded partly because the FBI and CIA didn't follow the leads before the attacks.

There is a real threat of terrorism. And while I'm all in favor of the terrorists' continuing incompetence, I know that some will prove more capable. We need real security that doesn't require us to guess the tactic or the target: Intelligence and investigation - the very things that caught all these terrorist wannabes - and emergency response (Disaster Response).